Underneath the Blue Paint
by Florida's Firefly
Summary: What all must've been running through Lenny's mind during the sitdown and the climax at the Whale Wash? Here's that part of the story entirely through his eyes... Spoilers herein.


This is a little something I whipped up during my last plague of writer's block for _The Beauty Is A Beast_ (which will now be called _The Bemused and the Beautiful_ from now on). It came out of a point where I was wondering what all must have been running through Lenny's head during and after the sit-down. Consider his situation - He's lost the majority of his family and can't feel wanted or safe, even at home. After experiencing the death of his brother and feeling responsible for it, he runs away and goes into hiding from his family. But then he goes back in disguise, scared to death of his own father finding out who he is. Then he gets ill trying to rescue a friend. And once his dad does find out his identity, he gets reprimanded for something that wasn't entirely his fault. Then, of course, his dad goes off and nearly kills his best friend. I mean, poor guy! Anyhoo, this is a narrative of Lenny's thoughts from the sit down to the near end of the movie. 

I've forgotten to put it on my other stories, but I don't own Shark Tale. (Wah...) But I will ONE DAY! HA-HAH!

This is the longest one-shot I've ever written, and it's a piece I'm rather proud of. Enjoy!

oOoOoOo

Loosening my yellow, striped bandanna collar nervously, I gulped. (Well, actually it was layered caution tape from the storage room made to look like a bandanna and cover my gills.) The dead silence in the room only added to the tension. I don't know why I even let Oscar talk me into this in the first place. It was nothing short of suicide! Here I was in my dolphin disguise, covered in blue and white paint, standing beside a panicking puffer fish and a phony shark killer at the end of a huge table, surrounded by the five shark families and soon to be in the presence of the most deadly person in all the oceans - my dad.

Oscar seemed fairly calm about all this. He looked slightly unsure and was awful quiet, but he didn't appear nearly as panicked as Mr. Sykes. He quietly turned towards the two hammerheads to his left and put a fin up to reach for his cup.

The two sharks gasped and flinched back, afraid he was going to go Matrix on them. Oscar remembered what a threat he was supposed to be to these guys and got an evil little look on his face as his attitude seemed to go from insecurity to self-confidence. He glanced over at the killer whales on his right. He looked at his fin, pretending to mind his own business, but then he suddenly swerved towards them with a growl, holding his fin up like it was clawed.

The whales yelped with fear, and one of them fell out of his chair and fainted.

Mr. Sykes leaned over towards Oscar and spoke in a panicked whisper. "Will ya stop screwin' around? This will never work! We're dead. We're dead!"

"Shh. _Shhh_!" Oscar hushed him. "Thank you, Sykes." he said calmly. "Thank you." Then, he addressed his 'captive audience'. "Now, my man, Sykes has just…_begged_ me not to murderalize all ya'll up in here, a'ight? Now, I might listen to him, but then again, I might not! And that depends on the individual attitudes of all the individuals in this room…individually." he put an emphasis on that last word. Then, he suddenly turned towards me. "A-Ain't that right?"

Be the dolphin… Thinking quick, I put on a tough face, crossed my fins, made the best dolphin noises I could from my throat, and 'squeaked' in approval.

"Look. He's got dolphin muscle." one of the hammerheads muttered to his friend next to him.

"My uncle Vito got whacked by one of those…" his friend replied.

"A'ight, now which one of you sardines called this meeting?" Oscar demanded.

"That would be _me_." an icy voice growled from behind us and the door slammed.

My stomach did a little flip. He didn't sound happy at _all_. In fact, he sounded down-right bloodthirsty. All that I could think of that time was I didn't wanna be here and I wanted to be sick. But just as long as his eyes didn't go red, it at least meant that he wasn't gonna kill us. As Pop entered the room and started to swim around the table towards the other end, I turned my head away and shielded my face with a fin, pretending to rub my neck or something. I would've been far beyond busted if he had figured out who I was.

"So, this is the Sharkslayer." Pop said conversationally. "I've been looking forward to meeting you. I feel like we're practically family. You know that? Funny, ain't it? I brought my kids into the world, full of love and care…" He turned and gave Oscar a look. "…And you took them out."

I finally turned to look at him. He thought I was dead?

But then I remembered…_Luca and the others saw me and Oscar's performance yesterday. Did they know that that supposedly poor, beaten shark was me? If they did, then they would've gone to Pop and told him that…Uh-oh…_

My heart sunk. I suddenly felt really guilty. What must it have been like for Pop having his two only sons killed off with barely a week in between?

"Do you know who I am?" Pop commanded, his eyes piercing right through all three of us. "Do you _know_ who I am? I'm the Don - the boss of the Great White Sharks! I've"

"Hey, boss!" Luca suddenly broke the tension. "I saved ya a seat!"

Pop only rolled his eyes and swam towards his seat and sat down, continuing his speech. "I've been running this reef since before you was born! And if you think a guy like me couldn't get to a guy like you, guess what…" He raised a fin and one of the swordfish waiters brought a covered silver platter over and placed it in front of him. "You thought wrong."

Pop lifted the cover. On the platter was Angie. She brought her head up quickly and looked around. Her fins were binded behind her back and a piece of seaweed covered her mouth, muffling her panicked exclamations. She looked over at us and glared in frustration, looking as if she was saying sarcastically "Oh great - it's _you_."

Oscar acted impassive. "Man, _you're_ the one who's wrong."

_Don't push it, Oscar…_ I thought. _At least for my sake, don't push it…_

"I barely even know that girl!" Oscar smiled slickly at Angie. "What your name, miss?"

With a muffled exclamation of confusion, Angie gave him a look like he was insane.

"Oh, yeah? Well, I say he's bluffing." a sultry voice from behind Pop commented.

Everyone turned their head as a rather stunning lady fish swam up next to Pop.

It was the same one that had come and made that big finish with Oscar on TV just the day before. But something told me that she wasn't here for another make-out session.

On of the great whites nudged his friend with his elbow. "Oh, _marone_, if I wasn't married."

Pop's friend, Ira, smiled at her. "How ya doin', pretty lady?"

Lola only looked at him and made a face of disgust before turning her attention back at us.

"_Lola…_" Oscar seemed less than thrilled to see her again. "We meet again."

"You know, Sharkslayer. There's only one thing I like better than money…" Lola's face twisted into a glare. "_Revenge_."

_Definitely_ not here for another make-out session.

"Oh, I'm in love…" I heard one great white sigh.

"Your shark slayin' days are over!" Pop sneered. "And there ain't nothin' you can do about it."

Suddenly, Oscar began to do something that seemed absolutely insane for the time being - he started to _laugh_. It started out as just a little bit of a chuckle, then it got louder. Sykes and I stared at him as if he had gone mad. He continued to laugh and started motioning to us. I took a hint and forced a laugh. Sykes played along as well and unsurely did the same.

Pop lowered an eyebrow. "Huh? What's so funny?" He looked at Luca, who was beginning to laugh too for no apparent reason and gave him a jab with his fin.

"You've got nothing. _NOTH-ING_." Oscar said slowly. "Sebastian! Take her out!" he suddenly ordered.

That was my cue, and this was the part I was NOT looking forward to at all. Still, I sucked it in and stood to attention. Then, I shot towards the other side of the table right towards Angie and she let out a muffled scream. One second she was there, and the next she wasn't. I returned back to the other side of the table and my previous position. The taste was absolutely horrid, but I did the best I could to keep a straight face. (She didn't taste as bad as Oscar, but all the same…) I put on my tough-guy face and crossed my fins, but I must've looked like a gerbil floating there with Angie hidden inside my mouth.

Oscar suddenly jumped up from his seat onto the table. He began to sing and dance what I later found out to be "U Can't Touch This" and the M.C. Hammer dance. He seemed to be savoring the moment…

"Da-da-da-dah, dah-dah, dah-dah, can't touch this! Da-da-da-dah, dah-dah, dah-dah, can't touch this! Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Stop! Oscar time!"

As for Pop and the others, they just sat there, dumbfounded.

I felt a little nauseous. _Hang in there…_ I told myself. Just as long as we didn't linger too much, I'd be okay.

I shouldn't have jinxed it… Oscar was having too much fun being Mr. Bigshot.

"Okay, new rules!" he demanded, sounding serious and flipping a spoon up. He caught the spoon in his fin and pointed it at everybody. "Nobody, I repeat_nobody_ makes a move without my okay." He began to swim around the table towards Giuseppe. "I am the Panama Canal, baby! From now on, everything flows…" He swam right up to Giuseppe and breathed on the spoon. Giuseppe flinched as Oscar stuck the spoon right between his eyes. "…through me!"

"Huh? Whad' he do?" Giuseppe shook the great white next to him. "Whad' he do? I can't see it!"

"You lose a tooth?" Oscar continued, getting right up in the great white's grill. "You don't grow one back without my okay! Okay?"

"Okay." the great white said quietly

One of the swordfish suddenly sneezed and his sword nose stuck straight into the tabletop. He struggled to pull it out.

Oscar swerved towards him. "If you sneeze, you don't wipe that boogy without my okay!" He turned to one of the killer whales. "_Okay?_"

"Okay…" the whale said timidly.

"Alright. And you never _say_ 'okay' without my okay…_OKAY?_!" Oscar swerved towards the killer whale he had scared earlier, who had been just coming to his senses.

With a fearful whimper, the killer whale fainted again.

My stomach suddenly flipped. I put my fin over my mouth. _Not now!_

Mr. Sykes noticed me looking a little restless. "Uh-oh…" he muttered. He hurried up to Oscar. "Okay, thank you all for coming! Good meeting! Gotta go." He began to drag Oscar off.

But unfortunately…Oscar wasn't done. "Oh, and one more thing!" He pulled away from Sykes and swim over towards Pop. "What is with all y'all livin' in the Love Boat?

"Oscar…" Mr. Sykes said uneasily.

"Ya'll supposed to be the mob! Get yourselves a _real _hideout!"

I was getting sicker. "Oscar…" I managed to force out. This was not good; this was definitely NOT good…

"And take a good look, Lino!" Oscar swam right up in Pop's face. "It's over! You're _Old School_!"

"OSCAR!" Mr. Sykes and I shouted.

"_What?_" Oscar whirled around.

I felt my stomach jump. As much as I tried, I couldn't hold it any longer. All at once... Well, you get it. I gasped. "THE HORROR! THE HORROR!" I coughed up a beach ball and finally began to settle again.

Oscar chuckled nervously at Pop. "Eh-heh… Um…excuse me…" he grinned at everyone and swam towards Angie, who was lifting herself up from the table. Me, I was panting in disgust from the horrid taste that was still in my mouth. I couldn't feel my tongue! "Ange…" Oscar whispered. "Are you okay?"

"No," Angie shot back, fuming. "I am _not_ okay! He ATE me!"

"I couldn't take it!" I complained helplessly. "The taste was killin' me!" I had my back on everybody, furiously wiping my tongue with my fin.

"Lenny…?" I heard Pop's voice say quietly.

_Oh…crap…_ I froze and tried to think of how I might be able to get myself out of this. It was too late to hide or escape, and I couldn't lie to his face…

"…Is that you?"

Having no choice but to accept defeat, I turned shamefully to face him. He was swimming up and staring at me as if we had been separated at my birth and hadn't seen each other since. "You're alive?"

But before I could say anything, he came up and hugged me. For some reason, I felt awkward about it.

"I thought I'd lost you…" he said quietly. After a second, he pulled away and stared at me again, this time looking utterly perplexed. "What are you wearing? Huh?" he looked slightly angry. "What is that?"

I whimpered slightly, extremely uneasy. There was no way out of this… I was trapped. Defeated, I slowly pulled the striped scarf off of my neck. Then I took the sponge from my utility belt and wiped some of the paint off of my face. And finally, I took the band off that was wrapped around my snout.

The room suddenly erupted. My dad only floated there and stared at me in astonishment.

"Hey, boss!" Luca exclaimed. "It's Lenny! He was wearing a disguise so we wouldn't recognize him, but now he's not wearing a disguise, so we _do_ recognize him!"

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "…Hi, Pop…" I finally said hesitantly.

Pop's confusion quickly turned to anger. "Are you kidding me?" he asked. "Are you _kidding_ me? Are you out of your _**mind**?_ Do you have any idea how this looks?"

I didn't say anything. I mean, what was I supposed to say?

"Lenny, I just..." Pop glared. "I-I can't believe you! What are you doing with this guy?" he ordered, motioning to Oscar. "He took out your own flesh and blood, Frankie!"

I tried what I could to reason with him. "But Pop, just listen...!"

He poked me with his fin. "But nothing! You never take sides against the family, _ever_!"

Oscar stepped in, trying to come to my defense. Now, seeing that trouble was starting here, he was trying to sound as respectful as he could to Pop. "Hey, Don…Lino…sir! Listen, it-it's not his fault. Th-this is between you and me!"

Pop turned towards him. "What did I ever do to _you_?" His face looked almost pained. "You took Frankie away, and you turned Lenny into a dolphin!" His face suddenly turned from hurt to hate. "I'm gonna get you!" He knocked his fin into the wall right behind Oscar, scaring him half to death.

Oscar screamed and dodged out of the way just in time as Pop rammed his head at him. He snapped at him.

"Oscar, look out!" Angie screamed.

Oscar barely escaped the jaws that snapped at him again.

"Oscar!" I yelled and threw open the doors. "SWIM! SWIM FOR YOUR LIFE!"

Oscar spun around and darted for the door as fast as he could, Pop right on his tail. I watched as Oscar darted for a porthole.

I turned and looked at the rest of the five families, remembering that they were still there. Nervously, I turned towards them. "…Uh… Gentlemen?" I called out to everyone. "On behalf of my dad, I'd like to say…'Meeting adjourned'!" I swerved to Angie and Sykes. "Let's go!" I exclaimed and they both hurried up and grabbed onto my dorsal fin. I darted out of the liner after Pop and Oscar.

Pop had tried to squeeze through the porthole, but in his fury he ended up just tearing through the entire hull. I could see them in the distance, Oscar leading my dad to God-only-knew-where.

As the chase went on, I noticed Oscar was leading Pop right to the Whale Wash. I immediately suspected that he was going to go and try to make a big spectacle out of himself again. How dumb could that guy get?

I went after them as fast as my fins could carry me. I yelled in surprise when I barely missed colliding with a whale. "_Whales!_"

"Oh, really, ya _think_?" Mr. Sykes shouted.

Looking ahead, I saw Oscar darted into the Wash with Pop right on his tail. I put on a burst of speed and went after them. If there was one good thing that Pop had said about me, it was that I could swim a lot faster than most great whites.

I had never thought that it would come to this, and a lot of it was my fault. But chaotic as it seemed, I could understand Pop's motives. He was chasing Oscar not for the thrill of the hunt or the general rule of 'See something, kill it, eat it', but rather because of what Oscar had supposedly done to my brother and I. He really did care, and that only made me feel guiltier about faking this whole thing. But then I remembered what I overheard him say the other day from outside Frankie's funeral reception.

_"What's wrong with that kid? Why does he got to be so different? Frankie, God rest his soul, he was perfect! Perfect!"_

That had hurt, I remembered. My head was swimming! I didn't know what to think anymore.

But now was NOT the time to be just thinking about it all. Pop was out to do something much worse than any sort of verbal accusation. He was going to _kill_ Oscar the moment he got the chance.

We reached the wash just in time to see Oscar dart towards the control booth and grab the toggle pad. "C'mon, Lino!" he said. "It's time to clean up your act!"

Pop charged through the soap clouds and towards him with a growl.

With a glare, Oscar jiggled the toggle on the control pad. Streams of bubbles gushed out at Pop. He yelled and turned his face away. Oscar turned and reached for the emergency lever.

Now I wished that Oscar would just _tell the truth_. Hiding it wasn't worth this mess anymore.

"Pop, leave him alone!" I begged. I raced in as fast as I could. But suddenly, something grabbed me and held me back forcefully. I panicked for a moment before I realized what had grabbed me - the wash's emergency clamps. I had seen how they were used while I was working earlier that day when one of the whales accidentally got soap in the eye (apparently that was a common problem around the place). I turned my face away as a giant cloud of bubbles gushed up in front of me. I looked up and saw Angie trapped inside a soap bubble.

Then, as the bubbles began to clear away, I saw Oscar. He blinked when he saw me there. "Lenny? What are you _doin'_ in there?"

"Sorry…" I apologized, although I didn't exactly know why I was apologizing.

"Where's Lino?" Oscar asked.

Right at that moment, Pop rose right up behind him with a hungry grin on his face.

Oscar's eyes widened and he made a face. "He's right behind me, isn't he?"

"You're mine now!" Pop growled.

Oscar yelled and darted off. "Brilliant observation, Captain Obvious!" I called after him.

Pop snarled and snapped at him, knocking into the control booth as Oscar turned a corner. Panicking, I struggled as hard as I could to get out of the clamps. But somehow, I didn't see myself out of them anytime soon. Still, I continued to push and pull.

Suddenly, I looked up and saw Oscar darting right back towards me through two brushes that were closing in. My dad was right on his tail and took a snap at him, but the brushes closed in and pinned him right where he was. He snarled and pushed against them.

With a yell, Oscar tumbled forward and flipped his way into the control booth. He spun towards the controls and frantically began to pull levers and push buttons. One of the brushes slammed up against Pop's neck, pinning him. He tried to push his way out of the two that pinned his sides, but they held fast. Oscar was pulling levers like crazy. Out of the blue, brush after brush shot out at Pop and held him. Two pinned each fin and another held his tail.

I had _never_ seen anyone give my dad such a run for his money. Pinned there and trying to fight his way through, he looked almost…helpless.

But Pop killed all of that really quickly. Even with all those brushes holding him, he suddenly whipped his head up and snarled fiercely, looking like he was going to break through the machinery any second. Oscar yelled and lashed out, pushing forward one more lever. I gasped as two more brushes suddenly shot out at my dad, one slamming down on his neck and the other on his chest. He opened his eyes and looked at everything that held him. There was no way for him to break free now.

The tension was over. I looked at Pop, then at Oscar. My mouth hung open. Oscar actually had _defeated_ my dad.

Pop seemed to know that too. He glared at Oscar, but then blinked when the wash's enormous toothbrush stuck out in front of him with toothpaste on it. It suddenly forced itself in his mouth and quickly brushed his teeth. When it popped itself back out, one of the wash's workers, affectionately known as "Headphone Guy", casually came up and slapped a freshener tag on his snout. "Thank you for coming to Whale Wash." he said as he swam off.

Looking clearly annoyed, Pop blew the freshener tag and some of the toothpaste off. He looked completely exhausted from the chase. A crowd had gathered right to the side.

"Okay!" I looked up as I heard Angie call out matter-of-factly from inside the bubble, which was still floating around. "Somebody needs to get me out of the bubble, _today_!"

Oscar looked up as she floated above him. Seemingly amused, he reached a fin up and poked the bubble. It popped and Angie landed in his arms with a surprised yelp. The two stared at each other. Oscar's face softened some. "…Angie-." he started.

A lady news reporter suddenly darted up and stuck her microphone literally in his face. "The Sharkslayer has done it again!" she exclaimed, pushing Angie out of the way.

"Hey!" Angie frowned and looked away.

"Wait." Oscar started. "Wait!"

The crowd went towards Oscar and Angie was pushed back behind them all.

"But wait! No!" Oscar tried to call after her, but was suddenly lifted up onto the shoulders of the crowd. I could see that he couldn't help but be a bit flattered by the attention. But he was quick to snap back to his senses. "Whoa, hey, no! No, no, no! Angie!"

But Angie didn't hear him because of the noise of the crowd. All of this time, the lady reporter had her microphone in his face.

"Angie!" Oscar kept on trying to get Angie's attention over the noise of the crowd.

"Oscar!" I yelled. "Get me outta here quick! I need to get a head start so I can get as far away from here as possible!" I motioned to my dad.

"Look what you did to him!" Pop shouted at Oscar.

"No!" Oscar said quickly. "It's all a big misunderstanding!"

"Pop!" I begged. "Just _listen_ to him!"

"Hey, I'm not listenin' to _nobody_, okay?" Pop snapped.

"You always do that! You never listen to a word I say!"

"You stay out of this, Lenny!" he ordered. "You're in enough trouble as it is!"

Now I was getting mad. "Trouble? For Pete's sake, I'm 22! I'm not a kid anymore!"

I know I shouldn't have let myself go that far, but I couldn't help it! Things would've gone a lot worse from there if Oscar hadn't finally broken the chaos.

"_STOP!_" he yelled and swam up high to where everybody could see him. "_**I AM NOT A REAL SHARKSLAYEEEERRRRRRRR!**_"

Wow. That was direct.

A dead silence fell across seemingly the entire reef all of the sudden. Everyone stared at Oscar.

"…I-_lied_." Oscar said straight out.

He admitted it. He _actually_ admitted it!

"What?" Pop stared at him.

"And I'm not a real financial advisor!" Crazy Joe exclaimed remorsefully.

"…Okay…" Oscar said, weirded out. He cleared his throat and turned back towards Pop. "It was an anchor that killed Frankie. I had nothing to do with it, and neither did Lenny."

Pop looked at me, confused. "Well, then if that was true, why did you run away?"

I looked at him. I think by that time I had tears in my eyes. I just wanted for all of this mess to end. As pitiful as this may sound…I just wanted to go home. "Because you always wanted me to be like Frankie." I turned my head away. "I'll never be the shark you want me to be."

Just then, Oscar stepped in. "What is your _problem_?" he asked Pop. "So your son likes kelp. So his best friend is a fish. So he likes to dress like a dolphin, so WHAT?" He swam up to me and smiled as he gave me a playful little noogie on the head. "Everyone loves him just the way he is." He looked Pop in the eyes. "…Why can't you?"

Pop looked at him, then at me. His usually cold, blue eyes had softened and he looked suddenly ashamed.

"Don't make the same mistake I did." Oscar said. "I didn't know what I had…until I lost it."

Pop looked at me and I looked at him. After a minute, I managed the smallest smile at him. The look on his face was somewhat pained. "…Will ya get me outta this…" he finally said to Oscar, "So I can hug my kid…and tell 'im I'm sorry?"

I smiled. "Pop…"

Oscar smiled and hit the red release button. All of the clamps that held us let both of us go at the same time. With a big smile, Pop looked at me. "C'mere, you." he joked lightly.

I swam up to him and we hugged each other tightly.

"I love you, son, no matter what you eat or how you dress."

I smiled and closed my eyes. "I love ya too, Pop."

He looked at me. "Lenny…I owe you a big apology. Where have you been all this time?"

"Uh…well, hiding in a storage room. I was afraid to come home."

"Well…things are gonna be changing for us for the better. Just don't scare me like that again, okay?"

"Okay. Just as long as you don't try and force me to anything that's against my general character again."

"Deal." Pop said with a small laugh. He stuck out his fin.

"No, Pop, try it like this." I grabbed his fin and demonstrated a little handshake. "Slide it…snap it…punch it!"

Pop blinked. "W-What's this?"

"Oh, just a little something I made up." I teasingly patted him on the shoulder. "You've got a few things to learn."

He smiled a bit. "I wish your mother could see you now. She'd be proud of you."

I managed a small smile. "I think she'd be proud of all of us." I glanced down at the ground for a minute, then back up at him. "…I miss her though."

"Me too…" Pop said. We looked at each other and hugged again.

Suddenly hearing a loud cheer, we looked over at Oscar and Angie, who were in the middle of a big kiss. The big guy obviously had set things straight with her again. When they broke away from the kiss, they smiled at each other. Everybody in the wash seemed glad that the two of them were finally together.

Then, Oscar turned his head to look at Pop. He slowly swam up. "So Lino… Don…" he started. "We're cool, right? I mean, like, the reef is safe. We can all walk the streets without, you know, 'Aaaahhh!'." he waved his fins to make a dramatic point and laughed. "Heh, you know…"

"Yeah." Pop agreed with a small smile. "…We're cool."

The crowd cheered. The lady reporter came through and swam towards Oscar as he pulled Angie close. "Oscar? Excuse me, Oscar? You've lost everything you lied so hard to achieve. Tell me, what's next for you?"

Oscar thought. He got a mischievous little smirk on his face after a few seconds. "Oh…I've got a few plans…"

Pop smiled and looked at me. "Ready to come on home, son?" he asked.

"You have _no_ idea, Pop." I told him.

Finally, I thought. I'm glad that mess was over. No more secrets or lies were left to clear up with my dad.

Except…he might want to know what happened to his porthole…


End file.
